Hiking with my brother...

Lake Isabel Trail

2009-12-22T15:00:00.000-08:00

Our Hiking Time: 6h 20m Total Ascent: 2400ft Total Distance: 10 miles Location: N 47° 51.9720, W 121° 35.9820 Difficulty: Hard This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip hereinstead. Trail Guru Map of Lake Isabel During the winter months we always have a backup hike, just in case something goes awry on the way to the trailhead. This past week was another shining example of the need to fall back on “Plan B.” Our cursory research regarding a hike to Mineral City...

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Wallace Falls Loop

2009-12-08T20:30:00.000-08:00

Our Hiking Time: 3h 15m Total Ascent: 1150ft Total Distance: 6.3 miles Location: N 47° 52.5120, W 121° 38.7900 Difficulty: Moderate This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip hereinstead. The slow recovery of a sprained ankle is keeping us from our usual lofty heights, but is also providing us with an opportunity to explore some hikes we would normally overlook. This week we made it out to Wallace Falls State Park to do a little tromping around. We have not been...

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CCC Trail - Eastern Trailhead

2009-11-28T22:31:00.000-08:00

Our Hiking Time: 3h 30m Total Ascent: 500ft Total Distance: 8.2 miles Location: N 47° 30.9600, W 121° 36.7680 Difficulty: Easy This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip hereinstead Earlier this year we hiked the first half of the then snow-bound CCC Road. This week, with a slowly recovering sprained ankle to tend to, we explored the remaining portions of a road that once served as the main artery for accessing the timber and mineral interests in the Middle Fork...

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Winter Hiking Tips

2009-11-15T23:00:00.000-08:00

A sprained ankle forced us to skip our hike this week. Still, we thought it would be a good idea to map out some of the things that were on our mind as the winter hiking and snowshoeing season begins. Drawing on lessons learned last year, we've put together the following tips. 1. Always bring your gear. Even if you don’t plan on much snow, even if the day is perfect and sunny, even if you are only planning on going two miles, throw all your gear into the car. In fact, just leave your...

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Mirror, Cottonwood, and Twilight Lakes

2009-11-07T20:14:00.000-08:00

Our Hiking Time: 3h 15m Total Ascent: 1250ft (650ft in and 600ft out) Total Distance: 5 miles Location: N 47° 20.6640, W 121° 26.2320 Difficulty: Easy This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip instead. It’s difficult to spend much time tromping through the woods without running across some body of water dubbed Mirror Lake. We saw the waters of a Mirror Lake en route to the top of Silver Peak and made a mental note to explore its shores in the near future. This week was...

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Commonwealth Basin - Red Mountain Pass

2009-10-31T18:00:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 5h 30m Total Ascent: 2700ft Total Distance: 7.2 miles Location: N 47° 27.6300, W 121° 23.8560 Difficulty: Hard This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a...

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Anniversary Post: Worst Hikes of the First Year

2009-10-26T22:48:00.000-07:00

Today marks one year since two brothers decided it would be a good idea to start a blog about hiking every weekend in the Pacific Northwest. If you have been following our blog for a while, you may have noticed the tone of our trip reports has become more frank. Back in the earlier days of the blog, we were trying to find something positive to write about on all of our hikes because we didn’t want to discourage people from exploring new places and making up their own minds. Now that we have a...

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Margaret Lake

2009-10-24T16:14:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 3h 40m Total Ascent: 1900ft (1600ft in, 300ft out) Total Distance: 5.5 miles Location: N 47° 22.8240, W 121° 20.1720 Difficulty: Moderate This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip instead. Trail Guru Map of Margaret Lake The rain has come. Soon it will turn to snow and begin to impede our access to trails. This week we wanted to push out beyond the Pass to take advantage of one of the last snow-free weekends. Margaret Lake had been our list for quite...

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Kendall Peak Lakes

2009-10-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 3h 50m Total Ascent: 2100ft Total Distance: 8.5 miles Location: N 47° 25.9197, W 121° 22.8277 Difficulty: Easy This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip &amp;lt;a href='http://bp2.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip.aspx?tripId=540068utm_source=embedmap'&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;instead. Trail Guru Map of Kendall Peak Lakes This week found us just over Snoqualmie Pass exploring some of the shorter jaunts around Hyak. After a few...

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Talus Falls - Photosynth

2009-10-11T20:51:00.000-07:00

One of the great joys we derive from hiking is exploring and finding the unexpected. Such an opportunity presented itself on our recent hike up Bessemer Mountain. As we approached the end of a switchback, the nearby rumbling of falling water piqued our curiosity. We bushwhacked our way down a steep embankment to what we later learned was Big Blowout Creek. After hopping across the creek we scrambled further downstream to discover a stunning sight. The slow shutter speed pictures of this...

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South Bessemer Mountain

2009-10-10T14:23:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 5h 40m Total Ascent: 4100ft Total Distance: 13 miles Location: N 47° 32.9880, W 121° 36.8460 Difficulty: Hard This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip instead. Trail Guru Map of Bessemer Mountain Occasionally, when planning our hikes, we bite off a little more than we can chew. That happened to us this week when we decided on a hike along what we understood to be the newly re-opened Forest Road 56, which provides the only vehicle access to most of the...

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Silver Peak Loop

2009-10-02T19:46:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 4h 45m Total Ascent: 3000ft Total Distance: 8.6 miles Location: N 47° 21.6900, W 121° 27.6900 Difficulty: Hard This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip instead. Trail Guru Map of Silver Peak Loop Silver Peak has long enjoyed popularity amongst hikers, spanning back to the first recorded ascent by the US Geological Survey in 1899. Since that time thousands of snowshoers, mountaineers and backpackers have enjoyed the relative ease of access to one of the...

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Guye Peak - Cave Ridge Trail

2009-09-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 3h 20m Total Ascent: 2000ft Total Distance: 2.5miles Location: N 47° 26.5740, W 121° 24.5460 Difficulty: Hard This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip &amp;lt;a href='http://bp2.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip.aspx?tripId=527759&amp;amp;utm_source=embedmap'&amp;gt;here&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; instead. Trail Guru Map of Guye Peak After some time off, we decided we wanted a hike to shake out some of the cobwebs and get back...

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Pacific Northwest Wildflowers II

2009-09-20T22:25:00.000-07:00

As the summer ends and autumn begins, we say goodbye to the last of the wildflowers for the year. We wanted to put together a quick post of the last spots of color we found on our hikes this summer before the greenery gives way to snow. Already we're looking forward to getting out at a little earlier to capture some early spring flowers. Hope you enjoy. Western Monkshood (Aconitum columbianum) We found some Monkshood lining the trail on our hike up to to Kendall Katwalk and Peak. One...

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Mount Gardner

2009-09-04T18:41:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 5h Total Ascent: 2200ft Total Distance: 12.5 miles Location: N 47° 22.0680, W 121° 34.1700 Difficulty: Moderate This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip instead. Trail Guru Map of Mount Gardner We’ve been avoiding Mt. Gardner for months. Each week as we thumbed through our hiking guide we’d quickly flip past it, opting instead for more appealing destinations. This week, the fates aligned such that we cracked open the page for Mt. Gardner and headed out...

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Rachel Lake & Alta Mountain

2009-08-28T17:25:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 6h 40m Total Ascent: 3800ft Total Distance: 10 miles Location: N 47° 26.4655, W 121° 19.8981 Difficulty: Hard This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip instead. Trail Guru Map of Rachel and Alta Lake There’s always time for a scramble up the side of a mountain. So when we discovered that Alta Mountain wasn’t too far beyond our planned hike to Rachel Lake our interest was piqued. At 6,240’ Alta not only promised some long views into the Central Cascades,...

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Snow Lake & Source Lake Overlook

2009-08-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 4h Total Ascent: 1600ft Total Distance: 8.5 miles Location: N 47° 27.8580, W 121° 26.7945 Difficulty: Moderate This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip instead. Trail Guru Map of Snow Lake & Source Lake Overlook We try to follow one simple rule when choosing a hike: avoid climbing a peak on a cloudy day. So, when sunshine did not seem to be in our future as we prepared ourselves for our hike this week, we headed toward Alpental and the hike to Snow...

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Pacific Northwest Wildflowers

2009-08-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

There's a narrow window of time in which wildflowers flourish: sometime between the receding snows and the scorching sun of high summer. At their height, wildflowers add a welcome wash of color to the familiar gray-green-brown palette found on the west side of the Cascades. Over the last few months we've managed to capture dozens of wildflowers on our hikes. Here's a few of the best. We're not experts, so special thanks to www.pnwflowers.com for all the details. Yellow Glacier Lilly...

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Kendall Katwalk & Peak

2009-08-06T23:59:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 6h Total Ascent: 3000ft Total Distance: 13 miles Location: N 47° 27.1200, W 121° 22.7160 Difficulty: Moderate This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip &amp;lt;a href='http://bp2.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip.aspx?tripId=483773&amp;amp;utm_source=embedmap'&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; instead. Trail Guru Map of Kendall Katwalk and Peak Most hikers familiar with Snoqualmie Pass seem to have heard of Kendall Katwalk. ...

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Mt. Catherine

2009-08-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 2h Total Ascent: 1320ft Total Distance: 3 miles Location: N 47° 22.3380, W 121° 25.6080 Difficulty: Moderate This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip &amp;lt;a href='http://bp2.trimbleoutdoors.com/ViewTrip.aspx?tripId=459976&amp;amp;utm_source=embedmap'&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;instead. Short on time, we pored through our resources to find a hike that would give us some new and interesting views in the time we had...

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Best of Hiking with My Brother v3.0

2009-07-26T13:23:00.000-07:00

Since April we’ve added a variety of hikes to hikingwithmybrother.com, each with something unique to offer. Occasionally we like to take a look back at our recent hikes and highlight some of the best experiences we had. By this third installment we’ve begun warming to the idea that it is unlikely that we will agree on a single hike that we feel was the best, though we can definitely find some common ground on which hikes did not make the cut. The Hall Point and Fuller Mountain were both too...

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Mt. St. Helens Crater - Photosynth

2009-07-19T17:45:00.000-07:00

Despite the untold thousands of images of Mt. St. Helens out there, we were unprepared for the reality of being brought face-to-face with that broken landscape. Descriptions of those geologic forces that reduced much of the mountain to ruin and rubble often ring hallow; unable to evoke the kind of awe one feels when standing on the summit. Attempting to capture something of that feeling, we put together the largest photosynth we've tried so far - a full 180-degree view from the rim of the...

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Mt. Defiance - Mason Lake

2009-07-07T09:36:00.001-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 6h Total Ascent: 3400ft Total Distance: 10.5 miles Location: N 47° 26.1120, W 121° 33.8580 Difficulty: Hard This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip instead. Trail Guru Map of Mt. Defiance A sunny summer day with a forecast of clear skies has a way of shaking up the best laid plans, bending them toward mountaintops and lookouts. And so it was that we recently found ourselves once again at Ira Spring Memorial Trail #1038, this time readying ourselves for...

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McClellan Butte

2009-07-02T07:07:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 5h 30m Total Ascent: 3600ft Total Distance: 10 miles Location: N 47° 24.3900, W 121° 37.3200 Difficulty: Moderate This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip here instead. Trail Guru Map of McClellan Butte We took a moment, while gearing up at the McClellan Butte trailhead, to think about the many months we had been waiting to ascend the snow-covered crags we’d spied on so many of our previous hikes. Each time we glimpsed the exposed rock that seemed to be...

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Mt. St. Helens - Worm Flows Route

2009-06-26T18:45:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 11h 30m Total Ascent: 5600ft Total Distance: 10.6 miles Location: N 46° 7.8397, W 122° 10.2888 Difficulty: Hard This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip instead. Trail Guru Map of Worm Flows Route Just a few weeks after we climbed off the summit of Mt. Rainier, we had planned to take on another large peak and penciled it for sometime this summer. For the last several months, as we’ve sat down to plan out our hikes, the details slowly fell into place – we...

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Lodge and Beaver Lakes

2009-06-12T13:05:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 2h 30m Total Ascent: 800ft (450ft in 350ft out) Total Distance: 4 miles Location: N 47° 24.5400, W 121° 25.8600 Difficulty: Easy This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip Trail Guru Map of Lodge and Beaver Lakes Now that the snow had begun to loosen its grip on the trails in and around Snoqualmie Pass, we were on the lookout for an opportunity to do a short hike to a destination that for years played a leading role in the recreational history of the Pass....

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Hall Point - Change Creek Trail

2009-06-05T16:49:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 3h Total Ascent: 1350ft Total Distance: 2.5 miles Location: N 47° 25.7940, W 121° 39.9640 Difficulty: Hard This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip instead.Trail Guru Map of Hall Point - Change Creek Trail After hearing vague talk of a new trail up Mt. Washington over the last few months, we decided it was finally time to investigate the rumors of a new approach to one of our favorite hikes. A little online research confirmed not only that the trail...

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Granite Mountain

2009-05-28T16:13:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 6h 40m Total Ascent: 3700ft Total Distance: 8.6 miles Location: N 47° 25.0260, W 121° 28.8720 Difficulty: Hard This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip instead.Trail Guru Map of Granite Mountain A gorgeous cloudless day begs for a climb up the side of a mountain that can deliver views measured in miles and landscapes vast enough to stretch beyond description. Luckily, we knew exactly the hike to live up to the expectations of the day. And so, since the...

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Talapus and Olallie Lakes

2009-05-22T16:46:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 2h 30m round trip to Olallie Total Ascent: 650ft to Talapus, 1150ft to Olallie Total Distance: 4.5miles round trip to Talapus, 6.5miles round trip to Olallie Location: N 47° 24.8287, W 121° 30.9840 Difficulty: Easy This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip instead. Trail Guru Map of Talapus and Olallie Lakes After weeks of ascending peaks such as Bandera and Teneriffe, we were looking forward to a change in our routine. We had not stood on the shore of an...

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Fuller Mountain

2009-05-14T17:47:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 2h Total Ascent: 900ft Total Distance: 3.5 miles Location: N 47° 35.1930, W 121° 44.6720 Difficulty: Moderate This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip instead. Trail Guru Map of Fuller Mountain Knowing we’d be a little short on time this week, we spent some time looking for short hikes that didn’t take us too far out on I-90. We decided on an interesting little knob just west of Mt. Si called Fuller Mountain, located in what is now called the Snoqualmie...

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Bandera Mountain

2009-05-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 4h Total Ascent: 3100ft Total Distance: 7.8 miles Location: N 47° 24.9240, W 121° 32.2860 Difficulty: Moderate This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip here instead. Trail Guru Map of Bandera Mountain Bandera Mountain. Words that often are followed by “brutal,” “intense,” and “dry”. While we knew this as we were mapping out our hike this week, we focused on another word often associated with Bandera: “breathtaking.” Bandera has long been a name...

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Kamikaze Falls - Photosynth

2009-05-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

On our recent hike up Mt. Teneriffe we came upon Kamikaze Falls. The falls drop between 150 and 200 feet, and are at their height in the spring, when melting snow and rain add serious volume to the creek. The photos for this synth were taken from different angles from the base of the falls. Unfortunately, the sky was overcast so the photos looking up appear a little too grayish for my liking, however the shots of the middle and bottom parts of the falls turned out quite nice. Many of you...

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Mt. Teneriffe - Kamikaze Trail

2009-04-30T11:07:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 5h 30m Total Ascent: 3800ft Total Distance: 6.5 miles Location: N 47° 30.5160, W 121° 41.7180 Difficulty: Hard This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip here instead. Trail Guru Map of Mt. Teneriffe With the snow starting to recede from some of the lower mountaintops, we’re already mapping out which peaks and scrambles we want to tackle first. At the top of our list was Mt. Teneriffe, one of a few lesser-known siblings of Mt. Si we had been eyeing since...

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Hiking with My Brother featured in Sports Northwest Magazine

2009-04-29T13:16:00.000-07:00

Hikingwithmybrother.com is featured in the May Issue of Sports Northwest Magazine now out on local newsstands. Sports Northwest approached us a few months ago wanting to know if we’d be interested in writing up a little something for their magazine. We tossed some ideas back and forth before it became clear that they were looking for a bit of excitement to catch their reader’s attention. We had just the story for them which we'll reprint here: Hiking is usually a fairly tame sport,...

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Best of Hiking with My Brother v2.0

2009-04-26T16:13:00.000-07:00

Today hikingwithmybrother.com hit the 6 month mark. Since October 26th 2008, we've reviewed 22 hikes spanning 163 miles and climbing up about 42,000 feet in elevation. Now, everyone has their own unique taste when it come to hiking - what works for some is just not appealing for others. For this reason, we work to gather as much information about a hike as we can, so that our posts can be useful to everyone. Nonetheless, every few months, we like to take a look back at which hikes we really...

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Squak Mountain - East Ridge to Phil's Creek

2009-04-18T15:40:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 3h 40m Total Ascent: 1000ft Total Distance: 8 miles Location: N 47° 30.6960, W 122° 1.8240 Difficulty: Easy This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip here instead. A few readers have written to us mentioning that we had given Squak Mountain short shrift with our single exposure to the tamest portions of the park on a rainy day. Finding ourselves in the mood for a short hike this week, we decided to give Squak another chance, albeit still on a very wet and...

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Pratt Lake Saddle

2009-04-08T21:30:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 5h 45m Total Ascent: 2200ft Total Distance: 8 miles Location: N 47° 25.4880, W 121° 30.7740 Difficulty: Moderate This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip here instead. Trail Guru Map of Pratt Lake Saddle After weeks of clouds and snow, bright sun and clear skies marked the first really good hiking weekend of the year. The much-anticipated break in the weather demanded that we take advantage of it with a hike that had some elevation and broad vistas. A...

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15 Mile Creek - Tiger Mountain

2009-04-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 3h 40m Total Ascent: 1600ft Total Distance: 10.5 miles Location: N 47° 29.5980, W 121° 58.3800 Difficulty: Moderate This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip here instead. Trail Guru Map of 15 Mile Creek - Tiger Mountain Although we were once again derailed by snow levels, this time we were prepared with a decent fallback hike. We’ve spent a great deal of time climbing the peaks in the Tiger Mountain State Forest, but we had yet to explore the more remote...

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Hiking with My Brother on Backpacker.com

2009-03-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

We’re excited to announce that we are now working with Backpacker Magazine to help share and promote hikes around the Pacific Northwest. In recent years, Backpacker has been expanding their focus beyond multi-day backpacking treks to encompass shorter day hikes close to major cities. When editors at the magazine went looking for local hikers to help catalog days hikes, they quickly found hikingwithmybrother.com and enlisted us to lend a hand. Not only will we be sharing our hikes with the...

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East Tiger Mountain

2009-03-18T16:29:00.000-07:00

Our Hiking Time: 3h 20m Total Ascent: 1600ft Total Distance: 8 miles Location: N 47° 29.2920, W 121° 56.8410 Difficulty: Moderate This site does not support embedded trip maps. View the trip here instead. Trail Guru Map of East Tiger Mountain We’ve logged a lot of time on Tiger Mountain. Most of this has been up to West Tiger #3 via the Cable Line, but after hiking to Poo Poo Point we realized there was a lot of the mountain we’d yet to explore. With snow falling on the streets in...

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